Booze Garden merges outdoor and indoor fun in Fort Lauderdale

A new bar called Booze Garden recently opened in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Booze Garden serves beer, booze and free popcorn. The bar in Himmarshee Village also has free arcade games such as Pac-Man and basketball.

A new bar called Booze Garden recently opened in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Booze Garden serves beer, booze and free popcorn. The bar in Himmarshee Village also has free arcade games such as Pac-Man and basketball.

In the 1998 comedy “A Night at the Roxbury,” two brothers, Doug and Steve Butabi, have the idea to open a club where the inside looks like the outside, and vice versa. If only the Butabis could see Booze Garden. Take one step inside the downtown Fort Lauderdale bar, and you’ll instantly feel as if you’re outdoors.

AstroTurf covers the floor, while fake shrubbery encompasses the back wall and the wall behind the bar, which seats 10. Light fixtures hang from vines above the bar, though the rest of the space is dimly lit, with garden lights hanging from the awning.

“We just wanted a real chill place, kind of like my back yard,” co-owner Ritchie Lopez says. “I want [people] to be able to come by, play a couple games, hang out with some friends, have some drinks, maybe get a hot dog and go home.”

A giant Jenga game sits atop an empty barrel next to cushioned outdoor seating and a beach umbrella. Nearby are two arcade basketball hoops, a Pac-Man machine and an arcade machine that holds more than 650 games. All these games are free to play. There’s also a coin-operated punching bag machine.

While Booze Garden replaced Glitch Bar, which featured vintage arcade games, Lopez says his bar is not a game bar.

Lopez says they want to add board games to Booze Garden’s repertoire and will bring in game consoles on Tuesdays. Other themed nights include “Welcome Home Wednesdays,” when beers and select cocktails are half off. Lopez wants to have bands play on Wednesdays, too. Ladies drink free wine, champagne and beer on “Ladies Rock Thursday Nights,” and guys get half off select beers.

“We don’t want to leave anyone out,” Lopez says with a chuckle.

Happy hour on Fridays runs from 6 to 10 p.m., when everything is half off.

From Thursday to Saturday, the LMFAO song “Shots” plays every hour and bartenders pour free kamikaze shots into people’s mouths.

Booze Garden is at 111-A SW Second Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. The bar is open 8 p.m.-4 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and 6 p.m.-4 a.m. Fridays and Sundays. Call 754-800-1441 or go to BoozeGarden.com.